July 22 2:25 P.M.

Courtesy Getty Images

Not only is the World of Warcraft movie still in production, it's just signed movie veteran Sam Raimi as director, publisher Blizzard announced today.

Raimi, who directed cult hits like "The Evil Dead," "Army of Darkness," and "Drag Me to Hell" will start filming Warcraft after completing work on Spider-Man 4, reports Variety. And if that's not enough nerd-cred for Warcraft fans, Blizzard also announced they're bringing in the production company behind last year's record-breaking comic-book flick "The Dark Knight."

Movies based on video games haven't typically turned out very well, and that's putting it mildly. But the stars seem to be aligning favorably for this particular venture. Warcraft's world is rich with background lore and deep characters, the game's polished visuals are ripe for a big screen treatment, and Raimi's experience in cross-media productions speaks for itself. And with 12 million subscribers, Warcraft is already a massive hit. Could this be the first game-turned-movie to make it big? You'll have to wait until at least 2010 to find out, but it's hard not to be optimistic.

I'm excited!

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